Thursday, May 17, 2007

Pollution blamed for China's cancer rise

BEIJING
- Worsening air and water pollution and frequent use of food additives
and pesticides made cancer the top killer in China last year, state
media reported on Wednesday, citing health experts.

The
official Xinhua news agency said earlier in May that cancer topped the
list of 10 most lethal diseases for urban and rural residents in China,
according to a Health Ministry survey in 30 cities and 78 counties.

“The
main reason is that the pollution of environment, water and air is
getting worse day by day,” the agency quoted Chen Zhizhou, a health
expert from a cancer research center, as saying.

“To
pursue the growth in GDP, a lot of chemical and industrial enterprises
were built along the rivers so that they could dump the waste through
water easily,” Chen said.

“The contaminated
water sources have directly affected soil, crops and food,” Chen said,
adding that it, along with polluted air, is closely linked to the rise
and high fatalities of cancer.

Farmers used
additives on pigs, poultry and vegetables to make them grow faster, and
the frequent use of fertilizer and pesticides were also to blame, the
report said.

The
survey showed cancer deaths had risen by 19 percent in cities and 23
percent in rural areas from 2005, the report said, without giving an
exact figure.

The number of cancer patients
in China has been soaring since the 1970s, and 80 percent of them died
from common cancers of the lungs, liver and stomach, Chinese media have
reported.